All pines will be checked

Jason Ferguson

Published: Thursday, October 11th, 2012

A new program being launched by the City of Custer will see every ponderosa pine tree within city limits inspected for the mountain pine beetle.

At the Oct. 1 meeting of the Custer City Council, city public works director Bob Morrison informed the council of plans for the program, which will launch soon and run into the winter of 2013. The purpose of the program, Morrison said, is to mitigate pine beetle infested trees within the city.

The city has six employees who are trained in identifying and marking infested trees. Morrison said because of the dry summer, many of the trees are not “pitching out”—using sap to try to eject the beetles, which makes it more difficult to see which trees are infected and makes it necessary to inspect all trees more closely. Morrison said if the trees are inspected before too much snow is on the ground, the piles of sawdust the beetles leave at the base of the tree will be easier to spot.

A new program being launched by the City of Custer will see every ponderosa pine tree within city limits inspected for the mountain pine beetle.

At the Oct. 1 meeting of the Custer City Council, city public works director Bob Morrison informed the council of plans for the program, which will launch soon and run into the winter of 2013. The purpose of the program, Morrison said, is to mitigate pine beetle infested trees within the city.

The city has six employees who are trained in identifying and marking infested trees. Morrison said because of the dry summer, many of the trees are not “pitching out”—using sap to try to eject the beetles, which makes it more difficult to see which trees are infected and makes it necessary to inspect all trees more closely. Morrison said if the trees are inspected before too much snow is on the ground, the piles of sawdust the beetles leave at the base of the tree will be easier to spot.

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